I have taken up a haphazard and frankly blasé approach to gardening.

 Some people might scrunch their faces up at this.

There are weeds.  Rogue poppy plants.  People asking me how we grow peonies*.  (*Answer: they were there when we bought the house. I kind of let them do their thing).  I employ Garden Darwinism.  If you’re not strong enough to survive a digging cat, a snail or a caterpillar, you have no place in the garden. I occasionally tie things in, might pull a bit of something there and a bit of something there.  I didn’t stop Killer Pumpkin from crushing a leek to death. There are no rules.

Maybe this is why I have never grown beetroot *successfully* until this year.  I used to spend time faffing and researching. This year, not so much.

I grew beetroot and turned them into a simple snack.

Ingredients

Fresh beetroot
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Method

1, Preheat your oven to 160o/c and line a baking sheet or two.  Kind of depends how many you’re going to make.

2, Wash your beetroot, peel it and then slice it.  Like super thin.  As thin as you can manage with a knife.  Or employ a mandolin.  (I threw mine out because I cut a chunk off one of my fingers.  Remember that? Awesome A&E trip)

3, Blot them with a bit of kitchen roll and add a couple of splashes of olive oil.  Toss them around until they’re completely covered and you’ve dyed you hands a beautiful shade of pink.

4, Lay them out in a single layer on your lined sheets and pop in the over for 20-25 minutes.  Check them half way through the cooking time and turn the trays around so they cook evenly.  You might want to keep an eye on them after the 20 minute mark.  We want them to crisp up and stay reddish.  Not brown.  Brown means burnt.  It’s a fine line.

5, When they are done, remove the trays from the oven and pull them off the baking paper.  Put them in a bowl and toss with salt and pepper.

Beetroot: staining everything you love for centuries.